Pieceful Hearts Quilt Show Booth.

Here's our booth at the pieceful hearts quilt show. It is our first time to do a show. I'm excited and a little overwhelmed with all the work, it took to get ready. Maybe it is because I'm still a little tired from the Houston Quilt Market. I think the booth looks great though and am excited to see what the weekend brings.

Here's a different shot. We look like a real booth at a quilt show. Woot!

And, this is what the bad dogs did while we were away all day. I guess they were a little angry that they didn't get there noon walk!

Route 66

Jennifer's Aunts have written a new quilt book, "Get Your Stitch on Route 66: Quilts from the Mother Road" by Christina DeArmond, Eula Lang, and Kaye Spitzli. I haven't done any hand work in long time, probably 5 or 6 years anyway. But, this book made me want to pick it up again. I think part of my reasoning for not doing it is because my Mom did such beautiful work, and I want for mine to be as beautiful. This book is fun and I would like to make a quilt for my Father-in-law because he loves Route 66. I have one of the stitching blocks done and can hardly stand it that I have worked on a block since the plane ride home from Houston. *sigh*

Some Quilts from the Quilt show in Houston.

So, we really didn't make it much past the pictoral quilts......Here's a few of them.
Fire and Ice. In the Beginning. The great crate escape. Morning Has Broken. Autumn's Palette

Trees Up Lights On.

This quilt is from the "trees up lights on" class we had at the shop. Mary Bordeaux finished piecing her top, and I got it quilted yesterday. It is a fun quilt with some fun quilting,
Great job Mary, the quilt is wonderful!

Nothing like a quilt show for a little motivation.

This is a buck a block that Beth and I signed up for in 2007. We actually signed up for both versions. The batik and the floral one. We did finish getting the top pieced in early 2008. Beth got hers quilted a couple of months ago and I just got mine done this week, so that I could get it into the quilt show, which is the 16th and 17th of October. Nothing like coming in just under the wire.
Here's a close up of the suns. I love the suns they turned out wonderfully. I'm not sure I love the swirl echos in the sashing, but I really couldn't think of what else to do. I do love the lime green thread.Margaret wold be proud of me for quilting my name into the quilt.

New Look.

We got some new fabrics in, at the shop and so we did a little quilt shop turnover. I had been wanting to move the cases that were up against the windows out, we were finally able to do that. Yea!
We now have 1,000 bolts of fabric and I think that we look like a grown up quilt shop. Woot

Celebrating the Fruit Lady Challenge.

Here is a close up of my quilting, swirls with a glittery thread.

Here's my fruilt lady challenge quilt. I have been wanting to try some wonky piecing, and this gave me the oportunity to give it a whirl.

Here is the close up of Debbie's quilting. I love it.

Here's a close of Debbie's fruit ladies, she wanted to make hers look like a beach towel, in keeping with the beach towels on the fruit ladies.

Debbie and I met half way between Woodstock and Augusta, in Madison. And showed each other our challenge quilts. They were very different and very fun.

Nine-Nine-oh Nine.

My friend Pam has a friend named Mary whose birthday is September 9th. She has been looking forward to her 9-9-9 birthday. Pam made Mary the ultimate nine patch quilt. A Sudoko quilt done in GEORGIA colors. I quilted it for her about a month ago, but she asked me to wait to post the quilt until today. Here it is Happy Birthday Mary!
I quilted it with red thread with UGA and "go dawgs" in the stippling.

Today is also my friend Linda's birthday, Happy Birthday to you too Linda!

A friendly Challenge.

The last time Debbie was up for a visit she brought some Fruit Lady fabric from a project she did for a customer. So, in the spirit of the fun fruit ladies we decided to make a challenge of using the fabric and making it into a quilt.
The rules, the size of the quilt is not to be bigger than 18x25. We then picked these fat quarters to use in the quilt. Don't they look delicious?
Last week as part of my fabric therapy (when I had bronchitis) I sat at my machine and "worked" on it. It has been fun. The reveal is on Sept. 21st which is close to the last day of summer. I can't wait to see Debbie's and celebrate the end of summer!

Lest you think I didn't get any quilting done this weekend.

This is Mary's "choo choo train" baby quilt. I quilted it with swirls

Mary bought this quilt at a garage sale and wanted it quilted. I quilted it with leaves and flowers and ribbons.

This is another quilt that Dell brought in for us to finish, I have had it for a while trying to decide if I really wanted to try to quilt it or if it was too fragile. Dell really wanted it quilted, so I decided to go for it. I did not quilt in the stars, just in the muslin sections. I think Dell will be thrilled, that it is done.

This is a sweet quilt that Sharron made. There are actually clothes for the dolls that "stick" on with fusible fleece. I quilted the border with leaves and ribbons, stipple in the borders and an oval around the dolls. Fun quilt.

Look what I found today.

We were digging in some stuff today, looking for Drew's immunization records. Anyway we dug out an old trunk that had the top to our wedding cake, my cap and gown, a couple of my Grandmother's aprons, a few pieces of Robert's Grandmother's china and a quilt top that I assume was my Grandmother's on my Mom's side of the family. Honestly I don't even remember getting it or putting it in the trunk. But, it is a wonderful find. It is nothing special except it was my Granny's. The last quilt tops that I had was before I had the HQ and I had to send them off to be quilted. I am looking forward to quilting this one myself. So, another quilt to add to the queue.

The Design Wall is Up!

So, we have been wanting a design wall in the classroom for a while. We have had the foam insulation stuff and the felt for a few weeks. Since there were three of us in the shop today we were able to put the spray adhesive on the insulation and add the felt. We got both pieces of felt trimmed down. Then Robert walked in from painting at the new church building just in time to attach them to the wall. Margaret's "one block wonder" class got to use it first to check out their "wonder"ful blocks. (bummer that I didn't get a picture)
But, yea the design wall is up and has a few pinwheel blocks on it.

Pictures from a couple of classes.

I didn't get a picture of the ladies, but the postcard class was a lot of fun. There were two ladies in the class and Margaret was the teacher and they spread out on EVERY table. It cracked me up. Shawntel said that when she was leaving the house her husband asked if she was going on a three day retreat and she said "nope a three hour class"! That cracked us all up.
The ladies working away in the "one block wonder" class. They were a little quiter than the postcard class, but still lots of fun and they got lots of block finished. It was fun to see how the different fabrics took on such a different and beautiful design.

One of the fun things about owning a quilt shop.

Working in and owning a quilt shop we occasionally have people come in carrying a quilt in their hands and wanting to try to find out some history about the pattern or the fabrics. Anyway, the other day an older gentleman and his wife came in carrying this quilt. His mother made the quilt and he was going to send it to his son, but he was wanting the name of the pattern to send with it. I did not know, but thought it might be a variation of the dunkard's path. The good news is I know a quilt history buff. Siobhan came into the shop and I showed her the picture. And here is her response:

Hi Kathy!
I went home and immediately dug into my geek-y pile of quilt history books....I was half right on the name - "Mohawk Trail" is the name most often used though it also goes under several other names like "Chinese Fans." It was a very popular pattern in the 1930 with several posted in the Quilt Alliance Quilt index (lists most major museum collections.) The pattern was in several magazines and newspapers during the 1930's. The pattern in the Kansas City Star has the fans piece then pieced in to the curve background like drunkards path.

Looks like his quilt is in nice condition. It would be great if he could put a label on it with his grandmother's name, where she lived, and the type of quilt so the history doesn't get lost...

BTW...At this year's NQA show in the Scrap Quilt category a Modern Mohawk Trail Quilt took third place (nothing to sneeze at!)

Siobhan

The quilt was lovely and when I called the him to tell him what Siobhan had said he was THRILLED. He said he remembered his mother talking about Mohawk Trail and so excited to have this information.
Cool huh?

Fetching Water.

Here's what I have been working on this week. This is "Fetching Water" a Kitambaa Design by Pippa Moore. It is a beautiful quilt. I love her designs. We sell all of them in the shop. This is the second one of her designs I have made. I used some batiks and some vegetable dyed fabric from South America. It was fun to do, and sometimes it is nice to make a smaller quilt and get some almost instant gratification.

Dog tired dogs

So, I think you can tell we are empty nesters because we talk about and take pictures of our dogs. (sad but true) They are funny and crack us up. This is them after a walk and then a playing and barking fest in the house. Glad we have a comfy couch with pillows for them.

Four quilts down twelve to go.

A sweet baby quilt, quilted with a floral echo.

One of the many quilts Dell has brought me to finish for her. This one is one of her favorite ones. It was fun to quilt. I can't wait until she picks it up I want to see her face. I think she will love it.
This quilt was made by Linda as a donation quilt. It is a beautiful romantic quilt. I think it will appeal to lots of people.

The fourth one you will have to wait and see at a later date, it is a surprise.

*sigh*

So, Tallulah barked and the alarm went off. Robert went downstairs and saw some teenagers running away from the building. Then we found the broken windows. It's good to know that the glass break alarm works. No one was hurt and nothing was stolen.

So, we got to clean up some glass and stuff.

The good news is the they broke a couple of the small windows and NOT one of the big ones. So here's the fix some plywood and caulking.
Hmmmm.

The Quilting Queue.

We have gotten in eight quilts this week to quilt. Amazing!

Gobble Gobble

We got in some new fabric by Moda today. It is a lovely line designed by Sandy Gervais, the colors are lushious. The panel says "eat more pie" which I think are great workd to live by.

Happy Birthday Honey.

Today is Robert's 49th birthday. It makes me smile to think how blessed I am to be his wife. Don't forget to pick out some fabric so I can make your quilt.
Happy Birthday!

Finished Christmas Mystery.

Here's a look at the Christmas Mystery. Several of the ladies have their tops together. They are looking great!!!!

Got one quilt quilted today.

Here is a fun music quilt made by Cheryl for her nephew. It is a fun quilt that had some big squares that needed something big in the squares.

Here's a close up of the large swirl circle and the swirl echos.
Here's the back of Cheryl's music quilt. Plain backs are always interesting when they are on a quilt.