A Good Friend and a Great Shop

I am so fortunate to meet so many wonderful women through the shoppe - that is the shoppe where I work and spend lots of fun time!!!  You thought I was going to say money didn't you?  Well, there is that too :)  

It was through the shoppe that I met Julie.  Julie is a favorite in the shoppe and I am so happy to say, I consider her a friend. 

Julie is a gifted quilter and she makes the most fabulous bags!!!  She is just an all around amazing seamstress!

  You may have visited her blog, Being Me and Sippin' Tea - you really should visit!

    

Well, Julie is not only talented with needle and thread....but also with a brush and paints!!!  

She makes floorcloths!  In case you don't know what a floorcloth is....it is like a rug but made of canvas and painted.  Very cool!

This talented lady has opened her own Etsy shop to sell some of her stitched goods and her floorcloths!  When she told me she was opening a shop, I thought it would be fun to post a few pictures of her great floorcloths....

         

Great, right?

  

I think this polka dot one was meant for me :)

  

Her Etsy shop is call The Lime Loft.... check it out!

And if you are ever in the shoppe {Sew To Speak} we have an adorable Julie floorcloth right in front of the register area....with polka dots and an owl, of course!

Congrats on your shop Julie!

mary

Wordless Wednesday....

Rose and Star

mary

A New Beginning....

I have decided my middle name must be Distracted....because my mind is always letting me put aside the project at hand to play with another.  Today I had two distractions!

The first - very pleasant - distraction was the Rose and Star!  And so it begins a new English Paper Piecing project to keep my fingers busy.

   

If you recall, Clare and I had a little secret squirrel exchange before Christmas....Clare sent to me the most fantastic English Paper Pieced quilt....the Rose and Star.

It is sensational!!!  And now I have a whole new appreciation for the work her poor little fingers went through to produce this masterpiece.

I made my templates {from freezer paper so I can iron them on to the back of my fabric}.....selected some fabrics and began the basting process...

There are so many pieces!  But I am almost finished basting one flower....

I considered using my inspiration fabric as the background {where Clare has white}....but I am thinking it may be too busy {even for me} and it would need to be pieced as well so it will need some thinking yet...

Another lovely distraction was playing with the block I posted yesterday.  Marit aptly described this as an inverted spiderweb.  And in fact, I used both a kite ruler and my kaleido ruler to work out this block.  I think the official name of this one is Periwinkle - according to Maggie Malone's Quilt Block Designs.  If you notice it has the spiderweb wedges in the white octagon spaces. 

Desert Threads mentioned that she has done a couple of these quilts and she said the block is The Arkansas Snowflake.

This is what makes quilting so much fun!

But I wanted to play with this block a little more.  Some time ago, I had pinned another quilt that, again, reminded me of the spiderweb but was ever so slightly different.

      This one is built on a square....my original spiderweb quilt {that I am still working on} is built on triangles.

 The thing I love most about this square version is the secondary pattern...

 How fun!

Okay....enough playing...time to focus.

Hope you had a wonderful Monday!

mary 



Adding colors and blocks....

A quick post before I head off to my slumber....

It has been another busy weekend, but I did get to work on a few more blocks of this re-vamped vintage quilt {my insipiration quilt}

One of the things I love in the vintage quilt is the green/yellow combination....but I had to add more colors....BTW, the girl in the picture from my previous post is my youngest daughter.  She is a Mary too!!!!

The vintage quilt was most likely hand pieced and I love the solid white sections as well as how small the 'stars' are in the vintage quilt.  Mine are a little larger and machine pieced....

    

But it sews along fairly quickly and I think there are lots of fun options for quilting this one!

In fact, as I work on it I am finding all kinds of fun things to try with this design...

What's one more project?

Tomorrow begins the Rose and Star block party over at My Selfsown Life....I can't wait!

Good night!

mary 



Green and Yellow.....

While perusing Pinterest....

I repinned a gorgeous vintage quilt.  Don't you just love Pinterest???

this quilt is a Vintage Quilt belonging to Anne Sutton.  



pinterest

It would appear this quilt is done by English paper piecing, but I thought I would play a little with the design and a couple of special rulers....

 I am only giving a sneak peek today...

When I saw the pinterest picture it reminded me of a color combination that I love....

a combination that was a favorite of this girl....

So using my Kaleido ruler and my Kite ruler from Marti Michell...

I have been able to work out this pattern, although I am partial to the English Paper Pieced version...

  

But for now, I will keep working this out with Green and Yellow leading the way....

Happy Friday!

mary;)

Cleaning, Thinking and a little Pyramid Building....

That about sums it up...my house needed a thorough dusting!  I love when I get in the cleaning mode and tear through a few rooms in one morning.

I cleaned and I hung more plates on my Wall O' Plates!!!

I have been collecting some fun, colorful plates and I am determined to mix these plates with some of my husband's grandfathers paintings {from the early 1900's}and fill my entire wall with plates and paintings.  

   

I have such a difficult time with art.  What I really like I can't afford and the rest I just can't get excited about.  But I love plates on the wall!!!  They are beautiful...the shape....the colors....the design.  And I like the mix of old and new. 

Last summer I bought a chair at a garage sale and before Thanksgiving I painted it and re-covered the seat cushion.  It had to move to the basement while we had the tree up, but the chair is now back and I really love it...especially since it was only $5!!!

  

Hee hee!!!  I know, great picture, right?  I like the color of the chair but I REALLY like the cushion....and of course my sweet Rose and Star is waiting to take her rightful place :)

Which leads me to my thinking today....

Thinking about what fabric to use for the Rose and Star Block Party.

I know my quilt will be built upon this fabric....

  

I LOVE this fabric! 

From Melody Miller....

I must have slept well last night because I still had energy to work on the Pyramid Quilt a bit...

It is growing!!!

We even had a smattering of snow today....it was a good day to stay indoors...

right, Flanders???

Happy Tuesday!

mary

New Year....

Well, we made it through Christmas and the New Year.  Although with both happening on Sunday...it seems like the holiday never ends....even if you are sort of ready to move on.

I haven't had much time to sew....

There are several things - in addition to my 'works in progress' - that I want to tackle this year...

I am not good at resolutions so I will just take it one step at a time...

 just cross things off my mental list as I go along....

But one project near and dear to my heart is the Rose and Star...Clare will be posting a tutorial and guiding the Starlets through the process of English Paper Piecing this fabulous block.  My fingers are itching to get started!!!

    

You can learn more about it here.....

Essex has a wonderful new linen blend {at least new to me}.  It is a yarn dyed linen blend and has a beautiful texture and color.  In the shoppe we have both the natural and black.  It was the perfect pairing for a pillow {and possibly} quilt that has been growing in my mind.

I have long loved the Red Cross Quilts from the early 1900's.  These quilts were used to raise money for the Red Cross which would in turn take care of the soldiers of WWI.

My pillow uses the natural yarn dyed linen as the background and the black yarn dyed linen as the cross....

The front is pick stitched with perle cotton {Valdani size 8....the best perle cotton in my opinion}  and includes a little heart of shot cotton...

The back closes with a couple of buttons....with Cross My Heart stamped in little patches...

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year....

Happy Monday :)

mary