Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop 2011

Thursday through Sunday is Atlanta's Quilt Shop Hop.  I missed the past couple of years and really didn't need to go this year but a little retail therapy would be good about now and well, there's my excuse.  The theme this year is A Quilter's Tour of Homes.
Thursday, I stopped by Intown Quilters on the way home from work. Intown's style is mostly modern fabrics, Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, batiks, and a lot of fabric from Freespirit and Westminster companies.  Intown was decked out like a coffee & tea shop. 

I can never resist gray and purple fabrics and I found a couple of fat quarters and a cute-as-can-be pattern for an owl tea cozy. 

I may have to make several owl tea cozies.

On Friday, I took a half-day off work and zoomed up to Little Quilts in Marietta.  To get to the shop, you turn at the Big Chicken.





 There is so much traffic in the metro area you can take photos from inside your vehicle. Not that I know first hand or anything...

Here is Little Quilts. 
Little Quilts can be very dangerous on the pocketbook....


I always want one of everything when I go there.... 







The shop was decked out as a bee hive.  With a super-cute display at the front door. 

I found some Barbara Brackman Civil War Reunion fabric for my Civil War block of the week quilt.  Red for the sashing and the purple-y fabric for  ????? I don't know but I really needed some.  I also picked up a few fat quarters to use in the quilt.  Little Quilts has the most tempting little fat quarter bundles all tied with ribbon. 



Next stop was Tiny Stitches in another part of Marietta.  I really should have taken photos of the shop dressed up as a castle and the Queen herself holding court. Check out the photos on my friend Becky's blog (she has some great ones).
Oh good you are back. Tiny Stitches is a great shop to find any kind of fabric.  They have LOTS!  Whatever you are looking for, it is probably there.  I bought some Lilac Hill fabric to go with the jelly roll I already have. 

I had to hurry before traffic got bad worse Dante's seventh circle of hell nightmarish.  I zoomed around the eastern side of Atlanta in a big arc south to Conyers to visit Sweet Home Quilt Co.
Sweet Home was decorated as a school house.  Since I am there at least once a month if not every other week, it was challenging to find something that I needed.   But look! I found a little bundle of purple wool.  Isn't that handy? Goes perfect with Lilac Hill.  Hmm. Needed that.

Saturday I stayed home and sewed sewed sewed on Eventide. I am ready to be done with this quilt!

One Day Done; Two More to Go

I am so excited about having a short work week this week.  I am really enjoying not being crazy working two jobs and dealing with Thanksgiving madness. I actually get to enjoy the holiday!  I have all the grocery shopping done and even though it's just me and S. (and the 4 cats who meow for whatever we are eating), I am cooking the turkey, dressing (in the South it is cornbread dressing never stuffing), mashed potatoes, yada yada all that, the whole nine yards, and pecan pie. I'm sure we will be eating leftovers for eons....

Oh I forgot to post my goodies from Saturday's trip to Little Quilts.  We had a great trip to Marietta with lunch at Williamson Bros.and walk around the square antiquing and a stop by the quilt shop.

Oh look there's Stella again....

A few new Jo Morton fat quarters and a free yard of fabric (earned by collecting receipts). I did look at every-single-last-thing in the store (just ask S. who was beyond patient).  


Yesterday, I watched four (count them--four hours) of the new AMC show "The Walking Dead" (Zombies!  In Atlanta!  Love it! and a friend of mine was a zombie in the first episode) and cut eleventy hundred 2" strips from stash for Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt. 


Here's Step one finished.  I changed the colors to purple and green instead of pink (not a fan!) and green.

I also started getting caught up on the U.K. jelly roll BOM (I'm a few months behind).  So that is the latest here. Two more days of work and then four days off. Yea! 

November Thimbles Meeting

This month I decided to go to the Friday night Silver Thimbles club instead of my usual Saturday. S. needs to go to Marietta today and I said I would go with him provided that we go to Little Quilts (a fair deal I think) and we eat at one of my favorite BBQ places, Williamson Bros.  [With Atlanta traffic, even on the weekends, it's nice to have someone to sit in traffic with you.]    I am trying to be patient while S. stalls finishes grading papers.

Although I missed seeing some of the Saturday people (namely Karin, my-partner-in-crime for lots of quilty fun), I did get to see Karmen and Brenda and also Saturday regulars Kristie and Becky.

I did buy the kit for this month's project (although I didn't start it). This great quilt is from the fabulous book Scrap Basket Surprises and the fabric line is by Little Quilts called  "Whittier Hill"

We could choose different border fabric so I chose the darker purplish-brown paisley. Here's my fabrics.


Just to show you that it's nearly impossible to take photos around here without a cat or two wanting in on the action.... Here's Stella with Whittier Hill fabric.

Improve every photo by adding a little Stella

Although it was a small group, we had lots of show n' tell from Sarah (no blog).  Sarah is very productive and a fabulous quilter.   Here are four of her quilts (four!)


 


For the December meeting, we are to bring a "thing in a dish but don't stress yourself out" which roughly translates to:  a potluck dish.  [Our fearless leader Pat just finished writing her quilt book and mailing it out and then realizing the holidays are hererightnow. Go visit her blog and give her a little hello, happy to see you back from book-writing-craziness].

For January, we have the choice to do this quilt (or as always work on our own projects).  Although it is a very striking quilt, I think I'll pass and just enjoy the photo.  It's not like a have 900 gazillion projects to work on...

 Alright, time to light a fire under Mr. S. and tell him to hurry up.  There is fabric waiting you know!!

East Cobb Quilt Show Report

The East Cobb Quilt Guild puts on a show every other year and as in the past, this one was spectacular. Nearly 400 quilts!!!! There are some exceedingly talented quilters in the ATL let me tell ya!! One of the best things about the show was seeing all my friends!!! Many of my quilty friends are retired and attend the Friday daytime Thimbles and I don't get to see them much.

S. went with me after promising not to fidget, whine, complain, or ask if it was time to go yet. (note: S. is not three; he is 44....). I also promised to treat him to BBQ if he was good. He also got extra bonus points for saying in the car afterwards "your quilts are just as good as some of those in the show." One of those out-of-the-blue boyfriend-sayings you wish you could frame and keep forever.

OK so onto the photos. I didn't take nearly as many photos as Pat so if you want to see more check out her blog. The show was crowded, which is a great thing for the guild and the vendors, but made it hard to take photos without people.
This won Best in Show--as well it should!!! Hand appliqued and hand quilted Baltimore album quilt--makes you want to swoon. (Aside: no, Mom you don't have time to do this one!!!!!!)
Here is a detail
I loved the color combination in this quilt.
It just sparkles.

Here's a great scrappy quilt with a fabulous layout.


Here is a miniature quilt that blew my socks off!!!
Those little paper-pieced blocks are probably an inch square!!!!!

I was amazed at the machine quilting on this one.
This was one of my favorite quilts at the show because (1) I love art history (2) it's a unique pattern and (3) S. knew all the paintings that inspired it (I misidentified two).
It's called "Sunbonnet Sue Goes to the Museum"

Here is a detail Sunbonnet Sue as "The Scream"

Here are some overall views
the vendors are along the second floor with the open first floor display area.
Melisa of Sweet Home Quilt Co. had a booth there and it was packed the whole time. The Little Quilts booth was packed too. I had already made plans to visit Little Quilts while I was way over there in Cobb Co. anyway. S. waited in the car, listening to his iPod
I did get a little bit of fabric goodness. Some Jo Morton for an antique-y Halloween quilt I'm planning to make, a bundle of Abe Lincoln Bicentennial fabric, and a French General needlekeep that was a gotta-have. I successfully resisted getting the Lincoln Bicentennial kit that I am coveting and I will be happy with my little bundle.

After a huge lunch of BBQ pork, okra, and cole slaw and a couple of gallons of sweet tea at Williamson Bros. We were homeward bound before rush hour traffic started to get too bad (ie: at 2:30).

A truly great day!!!! I think S. even enjoyed it.

I'm Glad it's August....

because July went out in an avalanche of annoyances. I was tired and worn out from working too many days in a row at SBux last week (4 days in a row is torture when you also work Mon-Fri at the day job). Day job was nothing but problem projects and complicated phone calls. It was also sad because one of my co-workers in my work unit left and with the budget cuts, all open positions are frozen and who knows when it will be unfrozen. This of course means more work for the remaining employees. And he was a really great person and will be missed a lot.

So I am glad it is a new month. Of course August means back to school around here which means more traffic but let's not think of that right now....

It's rained a lot here in Atlanta and it was humid, a little too warm, and very mosquito-y outside today. This required staying inside and sewing rather than doing yard work (oh darn ;). I completed step one of Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery. It's called "Christmas Lights" but I'm changing it up a bit to not be Christmas-y colors. I think Becky, Brenda, Karin, Cindi, and Karin are all making this quilt too. The pattern is in Quiltmaker magazine. The next issue is coming out so I knew I better get step one done.

Here's my HSTs, four-patches (which I did in assorted lights and blues instead of completely scrappy as the pattern said), and my Mary's triangles (also called combination triangle squares). I'm not a gotta-have-every-new-notion kind of quilter but I LOVE these two new notions that Mary Ellen from Little Quilts demoed at our last Thimbles class. The "Quilter's Magic Wand" for drawing lines for making HSTs and "Tucker's Trimmer" for making HST, Mary's triangles, and hourglass blocks. Awesome tools and your triangles turn out PERFECT!!! You can check out the items here and see if your LQS carries them. I don't usually recommend quilting stuff but these are some gotta-haves.

I neglected to post my Sweet Home Quilt Co. purchases from last weekend (shame on me). Melisa is having great sales all month to celebrate her big 5-0 b-day and last week was Christmas fabric. I bought some of Moda's "Figgy Pudding" fabric (on sale), a random gray fabric, and backing for my blue & white quilt.
The Figgy Pudding fabric plus my previously purchased FP charm pack is going to be made into a project from Moda Bake Shop, which I hope to start soon.

Returning to Blogland

Well I'm back to blogging and my usual routine. My parents were visiting last week so I got behind in blogging and emailing and responding to comments and all that. They left on Saturday and went from pretty, flowering Spring here in the ATL to preparing for snow in Michigan. We had a great time this past week and I am so glad they could come and visit.

It will take me a couple of posts to catch up on all the fun we had last week so let's jump back to last weekend and the Atlanta Shop Hop. I hope everyone visited Becky's blog to see her great photos.

Becky was so kind to invite me and my mom to shop hop with her and drive in the rainy weather. Thank you again Becky!!!! The first shop we went to was of course Sweet Home Quilt Co. (aka Bad Melisa's). I found this super cute bundle of Bunny Hill's Chelsea Manor

How can anyone resist this cuteness? Do I know what I'm going to use it for? No not really. The next shop was clear across the other side of town to Little Quilts. Now I just went to Little Quilts earlier in the month but somehow I found some goodies I had overlooked earlier.
A little bundle of Moda's Beach House and a little bundle of new Jo Morton shirtings and a charm pack of some really weird-colored Civil War fabrics.

The next stop was Tiny Stitches in Marietta.
I found some great sale fabrics They are more purple than blue (I couldn't get the color corrected right) and I'm going to use them to make pillow cases.

I also found some great new Fig Tree fabrics for not one but TWO Fig Tree jelly rolls I have hanging out and waiting for a project.

Well those are all my goodies from Shop Hop. Tomorrow's post is pie and applique!

Quilt-onomic Stimulus

Yesterday (on a Saturday!!), I had to work for my day job. I had to get up before the sun and travel to Kennesaw to speak at a workshop. Working most of the day on a Saturday was not my idea of fun but it went OK and about 100 people showed up so at least there was a good crowd. Since I had to drive by Marietta on the way home anyway, I drove to the Big Chicken, took at right, and went to Little Quilts. (Aside: the Big Chicken is a great landmark and is used to give directions in the Marietta area as in "turn right at the Big Chicken." The beak and eyes move too!)

It's been a long time since I visited Little Quilts and even though just last weekend I said "I don't need to buy anymore fabric!!!!!!!"

Ummmmmm.........

Here's my goodies (wait.... is that fabric??????) The cream and purple fabric on the bottom has a purpose and I've been looking for something to use for a specific project. The other yardage.....I have no idea how that ended up in the bag--let's call it a Quilt-onomic Stimulus.

The rest of the day was pretty much a wash since I was tired from working late Friday then getting up at driving to and from Cobb County in the rain and speaking. I took a nap and watched TV and that's about it.

From last week: here are the photos of the wool BOMs I'm working on. Both are from Primitive Gatherings and both are from 2007 (!)

This was a Block of the Week

This one is called "A Primitive Garden" and my friend Kristie is working on this also.

A Saturday Sampler Story

Little Quilts is one of the local quilt shops here in the ATL. It is a fabulous quilt shop and if you are ever zipping along I-75, you have to stop and check it out. (Side note: my favorite BBQ place, Williamson Bros. BBQ, is not too far from there and is also a must-stop). Little Quilts has a fantastic Saturday Sampler program where you pay $6 for the first block and if you bring it finished the next month, you get the next block free and so on. If you keep up, you have 12 blocks for $6 plus the finishing kit, etc. Although it means that you are at this fabulous quilt shop every month and usually end up spending way more than $6 each month, but I digress...

I started going to their Saturday Sampler when I first started quilting and learned so much (the directions are very thorough for each block) over the three years and three different quilts that I made. I also built up a good stash but that's another story. Anyway, I haven't done the Sat. Sampler in the past couple of years, mostly because the price of gas keeps going up and it's quite a distance from my house. But I miss these great sampler quilts with that special "Little Quilts" look, so this year I signed up for the auto-ship version online. The first block is on it's way and I can't wait.

One of the past Sat. Samplers is one of my favorite couch quilts and has been well used and well loved.

I think I am well on my way to joining Kristie in BOM-land. I think I'll be the BOM Duchess to Queen BOM Kristie.