Day ONE Down…

Yesterday we caught the CoHo Ferry bound for Port Angeles, Washington.  Here she is coming into port now….

She is a lot smaller than the BC Ferries and a lot older but she got the job done!  We take the CoHo to avoid the drive through and around Seattle.  Cuts out a huge chunk of driving for us….And you go through the US Customs at the same time.

We said GOODBYE to Victoria…it was a bleak and rainy day!

And Hello to Washington…WHAT.. it’s still bleak and rainy?! 

This is the bridge by Tacoma Washington…that cost approximately 4 Fat Quarters to get across!

AND YES I remembered the dogs…or at least Rylie!!  Now where’s MOLLY?

And this is where we stayed for the night…Centralia, Washington!  Notice we didn’t even unhook for the night…did I mention that there’s an OUTLET Mall just a mile down the road!  Yup…didn’t want to go…I’m saving my money for more ‘material things’!!teeeheee

Our first night was lovely..snug and warm in our little home with the pitter patter of rain on the roof…now ask me in FIVE months if I’m still enjoying our cozy, snug little home on wheels! OR will I be screaming…GET ME OUT OF HERE??  To be continued…

On the Quilting Front~  I finished my first block of the Autumn Quilt but I left it in the cab of the truck.  Did I mention that it’s wet and cold and dark out there…??

Have a movin’ and a motorin’ Monday and Happy Quilting!~P

And We’re Off…

…in search of the SUN!

 

Why do I have the feeling that I forgot something…

Sewing machine..check

GO! machine…check

GO! cutting dies…check

Fabric…check

Tools of the trade…check

Projects to work on…check

Yup…got EVERYTHING!!

STOP!!  Where are the dogs??  (As IF they would let us leave them behind!! They’ve had their little suitcases packed for days!! :o)

Wish us luck!!

Have a SUNNY Sunday and Happy Quilting!~P

Amy’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival 2011…

…is HERE for another year!!  Thanks so much Amy, for sponsoring this annual Quilt Festival!!  It’s always a fun event! 

Now what quilt to show you this year?? 

SETTLER’S PRIDE of course!!  It’s my biggest wool project to date…I know…I know…my loyal readers are shaking their heads and saying….  “NOOOooooo NOT Settler’s Pride…again!!”  That’s OK…you are free to go!  :o)

Settler’s Pride is my all time favourite wool quilt…no correction…my favourite all time quilt!  Love it!

Settler’s Pride was designed by Maggie Bonanomi…(try saying that one fast three times!!)  Love her designs!!

   

And here SHE is (Settler’s Pride not Maggie Bononomi) hanging in the family room! 

I hope you join us over at Amy’s Creative Side and enter your favourite quilt!  It’s more fun when you jump in and participate…and did I mention the PRIZES…?!  Even if you don’t enter…make sure you hop over and take a peak at some of the wonderful entries…get some inspiration for those looooonnnng Winter months…or not so long Summer months (depending on where you live!)

Tomorrow is the BIG day…we start our RVing Snow Birding Trek down south…just follow those GEESE!!

Have a SUPER Saturday and Happy Quilting!~P

FREE HALLOWEEN STITCHERIES!!

Hurry over to Jennie Baer’s Homeberries and click on Autumn for these wonderful Halloween stitcheries!! 

You have three days to whip up something Spook-tacular…

I would love to turn this one into a wool mat!!  Can’t you see it?!

Or you could Click on the Winter Button…and see what you can find…

I know I have mentioned this website before BUT you can never over do a GOOD thing!  Remember you can also stitch these up using wool or cotton appliqué…dang CUTE!!

Thanks so much, Jennie for your wonderful Stitcheries!!  There’s enough there to keep us busy throughout the Seasons… and for several years to come!

Have a FUN Friday and Happy Stitching!~P

Heritage Happenings…

When I was putting my chair away at Heritage on Monday I spotted this quilt just sitting there…the lady who was working on it  was elsewhere…so I didn’t get to meet her…or ask for permission to take this picture!  But..I’m sure she won’t mind…the quilters at Heritage are wonderful about sharing their work with the camera!  Isn’t it gorgeous……I LOVE this quilt!!  She picked the perfect fabrics for the pattern and her hand quilting is exquisite!! I’m sure hope she doesn’t noticed the drool marks when she got back…:o}

I just discovered…from a Heritage source …that the quilter is Judy West!  Love your quilt, Judy!  Hope you don’t mind sharing it with the world!….and sorry about the drool marks…

Carol’s polar bear quilt is wonderful too…love the way she used the different shades of white, grey and blues to make the polar bear!

And as I predicted Sharon made more wool pennies…TWO of these sweet, little snowmen pennies..

And one of these!!  Hard to believe that these are Sharon’s first wool projects!  We have a Wool Crazy on our hands!!

I tell ya’ once you try it..you will never go back!! 

It’s a shame our local quilt shops don’t carry wool or wool patterns!!  Go figure!  I was asked to teach a Wool Class in April…my fear is that I will turn fifteen quilters onto wool without a local supplier nearby!  I really don’t get it…most Quilt Shops in the US have a wool section in their shops with lots of wool projects on display…why don’t the Quilt Shops here do the same thing??  I would love to wool shop locally…and be able to recommend a shop to others…but I can’t…Is it any wonder why we are forced to shop on-line!!  I think we need to start hounding our Quilt Shop owners!! 

Have a thrilling Thursday and Happy Quilting!~P

…It’s not ALL Work…

About the only thing that hasn’t been packed up yet is my sewing machine so when the urge to sew hits I have been practicing my free motion quilting. 

You KNOW I am hard up with things to show when I actually take pictures of my free motion quilting!!  BUT I have I noticed some important things while practicing……I am becoming more relaxed.  My shoulders aren’t going up around my ears and I’m not nearly as tense…

I love doing clam shells…did you hear THAT?…I LOVE doing clam shells…I ENJOY doing clam shells and I’m getting better…not perfect by any means but better… I love making loops and three leaf daisies…

I NEVER thought I’d ever link the words ENJOY and FREE MOTION together…but…

I still find stippling difficult…I think it’s because I can’t visualize it…

  I can visualize flowers so they come fast and easy…I love making flowers… …and leaves…   I actually said when I was finished… “Now that was fun!” (and YES I said it out loud!)…which was a first- the saying it was FUN not the saying it out loud (don’t ALL quilters talk to themselves out loud?  Ouch…the things to come out of my sewing room!!)

Practice really is key…so someday…yes, someday I am GOING to Free Motion Quilt a quilt!!  Today however I will work on the stippling…and more of the FUN stuff!

In the evenings I have been working on these little guys…

They are by Buttermilk Basin…Have I told you how much I LOVE baskets, snowmen and gingerbread!  SEW DANG CUTE!!

Have a wonderful Wednesday and Happy Quilting!~P

A Cheri Original!!

Guess what has come to live at my house??  (Check my title for a clue…) Yup, it’s a Cheri Payne original!!  And isn’t it gorgeous!  Cheri gives away one of her little quilts EVERY month and I was the lucky recipient for October!!  Happy Dance!!

I need to zoom in for a close-up so you that you can see that Cheri has tea stained/antiqued it!  Love this effect!

Even the back is cute….and look at her free motion stitching…sheer PERFECTION!!

…Right down to the sweet little label!! 

  Now where to put it?  I’m thinking living room, end table or coffee table…OR  maybe it needs to go on a little five month holiday first!

Thanks SEW much Cheri!!  I will treasure this little beauty forever!! 

If you have never visited Cheri Payne’s blog then you REALLY should!  She is a pattern creator extraordinaire…and I love to watch how she comes up with a pattern and a quilt so effortlessly!!   What a talent!

Have  a terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting!~P

FREE Triangles!!!

Here’s the deal…You can go to your local Quilt Shop and BUY these Triangles on a Roll for about $10-15 a roll…

  …OR….

You can print these off for FREE!!  Yup you heard me…and they come in all sizes…for FREE!

Just go HERE to Quilting and Whatnot, and download…

Thank YOU Quilting and Whatnot for doing this for us!!  I have been hunting for the 1 1/2” Finished HST Triangle forever…and now I have it!!  (Now if I could only remember the pattern that I NEED it for!  Yup she’s sharp as a tack…a very rusty, bent, old, tetanus giving tack…:o)

Have a Marvelous Monday and Happy Quilting!~P

What’s Up With This??

Waaaayyy back in 2009 Kim (Kim’s Big Quilting Adventure) sent me a pattern that she was finished with…ripped it right out of her magazine (McCall Oct. 2008) and mailed it off!!  I had admired a quilt that she had just finished and asked her for the name of the pattern and what magazine/book she had got it out of!   What a shock it was to have her mail it to me… such is the way of the Blogger!!…(You can read about it HERE.)  Anyways for a long time this pattern hung on my sewing room bulletin board where I could OHHHHH and AHHH it every day…and then it got moved into my Bucket List Binder…and I think about it often!  I STILL love it and it’s STILL at the top of my list!

Then last week for some reason I bought this magazine…

I haven’t bought a Quilting Magazine in AGES…I follow the TWO love rule…I need to see at least TWO patterns in the magazine that I love before I will buy it!  Well…THAT’S not true…if I LOVE LOVE LOVE one pattern I will buy it!…but you get my gist…!

So anyway, I got this magazine home and low and behold WHAT DO I SEE!!  MERRY-GO-ROUND!!  The EXACT same quilt pattern that Kim sent me and that is in my Bucket List Binder!!  It’s been recycled!

See top and bottom…same quilt…same props…same picture!

The designer is Sandy Klop…which makes me wonder…does she get paid twice?  OR…Does McCalls have exclusive rights to this pattern…I wonder how it works?  Will McCalls re-release this pattern down the road 3 or 4 years from now?  How many patterns get re-cycled?  Are any of the patterns that we see in magazines NEW or have they been recycled?  Don’t get me wrong…I love to recycle…but I want to pay a recycled price…if you get my gist…

Now when I look through this magazine I see another quilt pattern that looks VERY FAMILIAR…could it also be…RECYLCED??  Inquiring Quilters want to know….??

Now…NOT on a quilting note…thought you’d like to see what I did yesterday~  I was up at 4 a.m. to catch the first Ferry to Vancouver…yup…pitch black and pouring rain…to drive to the terminal in Swartz Bay where I boarded a bus on the Ferry to take me into the city.     Passed BC Place…

And LOOK…the rain stopped…BLUE skies…and not a bad day!!

I had one last visit with my middle daughter, Maggie..seen at the counter in the beige jacket..buying us coffees at Starbucks at the end to a perfect day…One more coffee before I board the bus to return home…See my shopping bag!  Got ALL my Christmas shopping done!!  

It was pitch black and raining when I drove into our driveway but it was still a perfect day!! 

Have a SUNNY Sunday and Happy Quilting!~P

I Adore-a Flora!

I started off October with a win…a HUGE win!!   L & J Blog was part of the Moda Country Fair Blog Hop…Lauren and Jessi Jung gave away two Fat Quarter bundles of their new fabric line called Flora to two lucky recipients…and one of those recipients was ME!!  (Insert Happy Dance here!!) 

Well my little bundle arrived in yesterday’s mail!  It’s no exaggeration to say that this fabric took my breathe away!!  Gorgeous does NOT do it justice!! 

Just LOOK at Flora…I am in LOVE!!!

Gorgeous…little prints…of yummy colours!! 

 

And look… Lauren and Jessi Jung’s card matches the fabric…SEW creative!!

   What to make?…What to make?  Maybe a new tablecloth…the one that is on my table now is sure looking old and faded……hmmmm…. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be VERY difficult to cut this fabric up…it’s just too darn pretty!!

Would you believe that the fabric designers, Lauren and Jessi, are a mother and daughter team who have a website where they sell their own fabric, labels…and patterns…many of which are FREE!  You can check it out HERE!!

Thank you SEW much Lauren and Jessi!! I adore-a Flora.. and you can be sure that I will be putting it to good use!! 

Have a Super Saturday and Happy Quilting!~P