Kim’s FINISH It In August Challenge Finished!!!!

Rylie , my little quilting buddy, has been helping me out everyday in my sweat room so I thought  it was only fitting that she should make the announcement…..

“WE’RE DONE!….FINITO!….FINISHED!”

Where’s a dog to sit?  The bench is full of FINISHED projects!

I started this quilt from scraps using fabric from the other unfinished quilt …not a good start….both sat in the cupboard for about 5 years!  #1 DONE!

This is the unfinished quilt that kept it company for 5 years! #2 DONE!

This runner has missed the last two Christmas’ as it waited and waited to be finished!  It’s not waiting anymore!! HO HO HO #3 DONE!

 

I made the hexagons last winter and then they waited and waited to be appliquéd and stitched into a quilt.  #4 DONE!

This unfinished project has only been in the cupboard for 5 or 6 months…but I could see it sitting in there for another 5 or 6 years as I didn’t really like it.  #5 DONE (and I love it!!)

Why is it that when you make more than one of a project (one for a gift and one for yourself) the one for you never gets finished??  WELL not anymore!  #6 DONE!

And finally…The unfinished snowball quilt was probably the quilt that I liked least UNFINISHED but the one I loved most finished….go figure!!  #7 DONE!

  Even Rylie looks impress!

Hmmm …..maybe not that impress!

Thanks Kim for forcing me to clean out my unfinished cupboard!  You were the kick in the pants that I needed! I LOVE all my NEW and FINISHED projects!

It was a great August!  Have a wonderful Monday and happy Quilting!

YIPPEE!  WE’RE FINISHED!!!!

Hexy-done….or as near as possible!

Yippee!!!  All that needs to be done to the Hexy quilt is a border/sashing…..sounds easy but… I went to Victoria yesterday to purchase some Nature’s Chorus Fabric or matching fabric just for this purpose but…alas.. they didn’t have anything suitable.  I went to all three fabric shops and nothing.

I have two fat quarters of this striped fabric which would have worked nicely but it’s not enough.  Darn!

Oh well- I’m calling it finished!  It would have gone into the pile to be hand-quilted with the rest of the finished quilts.  It will be a few months before my Hand Quilting group will be able to hand quilt it anyway, so  I have lots of time to find a suitable border print. I will keep my eyes open….

I am so happy with the Hexy quilt as it is so pretty.  I took a close up  picture of the quilt with the striped fabric that I am going to try to find as I really like it as the outside border.  If not that, then something will jump out and bite me, I’m sure!  Think I will have to redecorate one of the spare bedsrooms so that I can use this as a throw!

So does that mean I can move onto something NEW!!!  Let’s go and check ‘the cupboard’….

The dreaded cupboard where all unfinished projects go…..start the ‘Jaws’ music….

The man-hand is mine….I do have more fingers….The ‘Jaw’ music is REALLY loud now….

Top, left shelf…..WHEW!  No shark and more importantly NO MORE UNFINISHED QUILTS!!!  Whoopeee…..think I’ll take the rest of the day off…maybe check out a few quilting books and magazines…..hmmmmm….What should I do next?  Stay tuned…..maybe I could clean out the rest of the cupboard?  Are those bags of lace? Nooooooooooo…..

Have a super Sunday!  And Happy Quilting!

Saturday is……

Garage Sale Day!!  Whenever I’m asked “How’s retirement?”  I always answer “Every day is Saturday-without a Garage Sale!”  So my real Saturdays are that much sweeter.  Today my BIG SCORE was all this vintage lace.  It is all so lovely!!  Have a look….

All shades of white, beige and ecru….pastels and even black….can’t you see this in a crazy quilt?

I LOVE the pansies……

There are over 90 doilies and yards and yards of lace!!

And tiny little crocheted roses…..love them!

A huge lace cape-bought on Prince Edward Island (with the price still on- $32.95!)

Have you guessed how much I paid for this WHOLE HUGE box of lace??

Nope…..guess again…. only lower…….

Try $8 for the whole entire box!!!  SCORE! 

My other BIG score was this lot of wire frames for making wreaths.  I always make cedar and fir wreaths at Christmas and give them as gifts to neighbours and friends.  Well last year I couldn’t find them in any of the craft shops but did find them in a florist shop for $8 each- way too much!  I bought all 17 of these at a GS for a total of $1.50!! Score!

So now I am set for the next five Christmases .  What to do with the lace….???… I think I’ll make a lace dress… and pants… and blouse and… pillows…. and quilt and ……and runner…..any other ideas out there in blogland???

I’m feeling hexy….

I’m feeling hexy…..and I like it!  It felt so wrong…it felt so right….( I can’t get that Katy Perry song out of my head…)

The centre part of the hexagon quilt is finished and I’m liking it! Oh yeah!  Hopefully I will get to work on it this afternoon and can get most of the outside finished, ready for hand quilting.  Only three days left in Kim’s Finish it in August Challenge….got to admit August flew by and I have a stack of finished quilt tops ready for hand quilting!Thanks Kim!

Oh, so pretty……

Have a wonderful Friday!  And Happy Quilting!

There is nothing like it……

There is nothing like a good, and I mean a really good, quilt shop! I can stick my head in the door of a quilt shop and know immediately whether I am going to like it or not. I can also tell how long I want to spend in said store…remember my husband is usually waiting…If it is good, and I mean really good, I usually stay an hour otherwise I say give me twenty minutes (which can be extended if need be). (For those of you out there in Blogland feeling sorry for my hubby well he likes these stops as he stretches his legs, walks the dogs, explores the area and has a rest/reads his book…he is a happy camper and I am a lucky woman!) After traveling all over Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona this was my favourite shop…now remember I didn’t get to go to EVERY shop in these states but I did go to a fair few!

The Quilter’s Coop, in Old Town Temecula, California by far beat out EVERY shop. I LOVED everything about it-the fabrics, the atmosphere, the way every type of fabric had its own display, the quilts and wall hangings, the HUGE section of wools and patterns, plus the ladies who worked there were wonderful, friendly and happy-EVERTHING was perfect about the shop. Here are some pictures of just the front section of the shop. It had three other sections that I didn’t photograph- containing a baby fabric section, the retro fabric section, the modern,bright fabric section and the notion section plus there was a room in back that held all their sale items. I could have stayed for 2 hours….easy! Sigh……next winter I will be back…. And next year I am also going to visit the Temecula Quilt Company (which I didn’t know existed but have since discovered and now follow their blog!)…Wouldn’t that be something to have two favourite shops in one city? We may have to set up camp in Temecula, California….!!!

Hope you had fun visiting…..? Do you have a favourite quilting shop that we can visit? Do tell….and don’t forget the pictures!

Have a terrific Thursday! AND Happy Quilting!

Let’s Get’er Done…..

Kim from Kim’s Big Quilting Adventure has reminded everyone who is involved with the August Challenge that we have less than a week to finish all of our unfinished projects!  I am working on my last unfinished project and although I am sick of hexagons, I am going to ‘get’er done’!      You must be getting sick of seeing these hexagons and I’m seeing them in my sleep!  But they are so pretty….AND I think they’re going to be a good thing….when they are FINISHED!

Are you working on a GOOD THING too?  Don’t forget to share….

Have a wonderful Wednesday!  Happy Quilting!

Whoopee…it’s Tuesday!

I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought of was –it’s Tuesday – TOOL TIME TUESDAY!!  I wonder what the tool will be today?  Every Tuesday, Karen comes up with a tool that has something to do with quilting. Excuse me while I scroll down and see if Karen from ‘Sew Many Ways’ has posted her blog yet…….I REALLY need to get a life!….

I’m sure that all you bloggers in blogland have been waiting and wondering whatever happened to my garage sale finds….the ones that I was going to fix up…Do you remember these Garage Sale finds?  No…?? (I’m shocked!) (See the ‘She Shoots….She SCORES’ posting for the details…..)

Tuh Duh….What do you think of my 50 cent finds now? (They were 25 cents each!!)

Now they are worth at least a dollar!! ha ha

I planted winter pansies in the pot-already for fall!  I’m sure cars will be screeching to a halt when they spot this baby hanging in the front yard!  I can’t wait for it to get dark so I can see what it looks like from the glow of the light…..it better be there in the morning!! :o)

It’s a good thing- LOTS OF GIVE AWAYS SPOTTED!!!

Bonnie from Calamity Jane’s Cottage is having a fantastic give away-it’s a quilt pattern and fabric for a gorgeous baby quilt. 

Plus Lurline from Lurline’s Place!  is giving away some lovely fabrics perfect for a baby quilt. 

AND Elaine from Faithful Quilter is giving away gorgeous Civil War fabric!  Got to love it!

So hurry on down to their blogs, leave a comment and tell them Paulette sent you!  Good luck!

There is only one week left in Kim’s Get It Finished In August Challenge! Yikes….Hexagons here I come!! 

Happy Tool Time Tuesday to you all!  (I just checked on TTT and Karen did not disappoint!  I LOVE her blog!!  How does she come up with these ideas??)  Oh….. and Happy Quilting!

Happy Dance….or not?

It’s another gorgeous Monday on the West Coast of Canada!  The hexagon quilt is coming along…slooowwwly…I might have to start another project just to keep my sanity.  I would really like to make a diamond string quilt next….we’ll see. (that is my ‘mother talk’ meaning I will probably finish off the hexagon quilt before starting something new…) 

Now on to my weekend SCORE!  I promised you a peak at the books I bought on the weekend at the Quilter’s Garage Sale.  There must have been several hundred quilting books and magazines for sale.  Like I said yesterday-I wished I had brought more money!  I shouldn’t be too giddy because I think this GS was the result of a quilter’s death so…I should be a little more respectful.  But if I were to ‘GO’…God forbid….what else are you going to do with my ‘stuff’.  I would want my fellow quilter’s to be hyperventilating, giddy fools at my GS!  Whooping it up about their finds, high 5ing each other, doing a little happy dance on my driveway….I mean I don’t see anything disrespectful in that, do you…?  OK, OK, don’t do a happy dance on the dead quilter’s driveway but I see nothing wrong with a couple of “SCORES” and high 5s all round!

Most of the books that I selected are wool/appliqué or stitchery books and were $2-$3 (happy dance….ok, ok no happy dance ……but…HIGH 5’s all round!!)  SCORE!

It’s a Good Thing-Hop over to Bloom for a couple of very sweet FREE stitchery patterns.  Don’t you just love Free patterns! Thank you Bloom!

ALSO, Thank you, Anna from Quilt Mom’s Journey for sending me all these fantastic Aussie bloggers links.  I spent all day perusing their sites-fantastic!  Love their work!

http://birdwomanau.blogspot.com/ Sheila is married to a Scotsman and  a lovely woman who shares her stories of life with the Sassanach man.

http://chookyblue.blogspot.com/ Donna often has a swap going and takes wonderful photos-

http://daisy-jayne.blogspot.com/ Marc is having some reno’s doing right now  so may not post much...

http://dragonfly-crafts.blogspot.com/  Fiona is getting married soon to James

http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com/ Robyn is the one who shared the info about slasher quilts.

http://kerryswainscottage.typepad.com/my_weblog/ Kerry is  lovely woman who lives in Nundle and often has retreats to her shop in the country

http://leanneshouse.typepad.com/leanneshouse/ Leanne is creating stitchery patterns – she and Rosie and Melly often are creating designs for stitcheries

http://lifesfreetreats.blogspot.com/ Meggie is a terrific blogger who shares her stories of life with GOM – she is one of my favourites and writes a little about quilting and lots about life.

http://lurlineg.blogspot.com/ Lurline makes wonderful quilts and shares her ideas and experiences with others

http://jennybowker.blogspot.com/ jenny is a fantastic quilter who lived in Cairo ( I think that her husband work has to do with Australian Embassy)

http://quiltingtwin.blogspot.com/ Mereth

http://artfulsister.blogspot.com/   Karen   are two sisters who have a long arm machine and do wonderful work.

http://tazziequilts.blogspot.com/ Tara  I have told you about before...

http://rhubarbwhine.wordpress.com/  Shirley is a kindergarten teacher who lives in Brisbane- she is a thoughtful writer and I enjoy her blog very much..

Isn’t Anna incredible!!  Thanks again, Anna!  The wonderful thing about blogging is you meet the nicest people who do these random acts of kindness-ALL the time! 

Have a great Monday!  AND Happy Quilting!