Score! IQF Cincinnati Loot

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Ok, for my quilty friends that have tweeted that they want to live vicariously through my shopping skills (read lack of control) from my trip yesterday to IQF Cincinnati, feast your eyes upon my fun finds.  I suspect you will all notice a theme and I will have to change my username on twitter and such from “ltdermdvm” soon to “the crazy cat lady”…sigh, what’s a girl to do?

First up….you know I’ve been lusting after, I mean “wanting to try”, some Aurifil thread for a while now.  I could no longer wait for Sandy to PICK ME!  My pleas were falling on deaf ears…wiping a tear from my eye…sigh!  SO, the hubs wanted me to pick something special for my bday present while I was at the quilt show and I decided I wanted to get some Aurifil if I could find a good deal.  My local shop charges $12-14/spool.  Have you heard about their new Lana 12 wt thread for wool?  mmmmmmm, yummy.  So I got this:

Can’t wait to try it out!  And I found the PERFECT project to try the Aurifil Lana threads on at Wooly Lady!  Have you guys ever seen her wool?  OMG…if you like wool, she has the softest wool in the most unusual colors.  I met her in Houston in 2010 and have been a huge fan ever since.  Not cheap…but so unique.  Kind of reminds me of the Sue Spargo type colors.  I managed to contain myself and only bought one thing at her booth.

It’s going to be perfect on top of an antique buffet I have in my dining room.  Seriously…look at these colors!Love, love, love!  Ok, moving on.  You all know Emmie by now, my little quilting buddy right? Well, Emmie proved herself to be a phenomenal mouser this past winter (thank you husband for dragging me kicking and screaming out into the country with the lure of “you can have horses”).  I found this pattern and thought it was priceless!  Totally reminded me of her.  The gumball machine is filled with mice (that piece of fabric was included) and the whiskers were sparkly strands of something (not sure what I’ll use for that yet).  Yep, couldn’t help myself…had to have it!While we’re on the animal theme, I might as well confess and show you all my other animal type purchases yesterday.  I know, I know…serious problem.  What do you expect from a veterinarian though?  Seriously?

This was a pattern from Thangles called Mama and Her Kitties.  I’ve never used Thangles but the demonstration looked super simple (ha! don’t they all).  I also bought the kit because the colors were perfect for my friend who does a ton of rescue work for kitties.  I also thought I would make one for our local group, Indy Feral, to use at their fundraising auction.  This one looked so fun for summer.  It’s called The Hunter and came with some matching Aurifil thread (giggle…).  Let’s just say, Bigfork Bay Cotton Company loves me after my visit to their booth yesterday.  Dear checking account, I apologize…I just couldn’t help myself, and to be fair, IQF Houston was my last real blowout…And another….this one reminded me of my Siamese, Lucy, who hangs out in my sink every morning.  She’s a little visually challenged.  We think she’s such a good mouser because she sees 2 of everything!  Sorry Lucy…no discrimination in this house, you must have “issues” to live here :)

Lucy

And another….

Hey, at least I deviated from cats this time :)   This is a VERY cool little kit that combines some pretty pastel wools with some gorgeous batiks!  Yummy.

I personally think I exercised an outlandish amount of control when I left Primitive Gatherings booth with just ONE little itty bitty wool kit!  This is a very cute little reindeer table mat that is all in the shape of hexagons which I’ve been wanting to try my hand at.  Primitive Gatherings had this BEAUTIFUL kit that was a huge Ohio Star.  I swear it had to be 80×80.  You can imagine how $$ it was.  Again, OUTLANDISH self-control (patting myself on the back).

Hey look!  Something without a cat or an animal, lol!  This cute little applique pattern was designed by Pat Sloan for Bigfork Bay Cotton Company.  So pretty!  And of course it came with some lovely coordinating aurifil thread.

Wrapping up now, I promise.  This cute little book by Kim Schaefer (you may know her from her book Calendar Quilts) had some adorable applique for crib blankets, bibs, and growth charts.  I have a few friends having babies this summer so I thought I could try a few of these out and make something different from the typical baby quilt :)   Last but not least, I give you…Yeah…sigh.  I had a bonding moment with Deb Tucker.  She is a total HOOT!  If you’ve never met her and you’re ever at a quilt show, go chat with her and watch her demonstrations.  I would love to take one of her classes sometime or just go drink some wine, beer, martinis, whatever with her.  The lady is a bundle of energy.  I had heard AJ from The Quilting Pot talking about a table runner she made from one of Deb’s rulers, so I knew I wanted to check out her booth if she was at the show.  I probably spent 30-45 minutes watching various demos and just laughing with her.  I walked away with 3 rulers, a quilter’s wand, and 2 patterns.  Nuts!

And that, I believe is IT my friends!  I had a great time and find myself unbelievably glad that it’s raining today so I can stay inside and play with my loot instead of get out and clean up my flower beds and garden like I SHOULD be doing :)   Have a great weekend everyone!

IQF Cincinnati Recap

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So, yesterday I embarked on a road trip to Cincinnati for the International Quilt Festival.  The last IQF I went to was in Houston in 2010.  IQF Cincinnati was significantly smaller and certainly not as star-studded, lol, but it was the perfect size for a day trip.  So, I thought I would take you on a little tour of my day…grab your coffee!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, this is the view from the top.  The first picture shows the half of the convention center that held the quilt exhibits (by the lights) and the second picture shows the other half which contained all the vendors.  As you can see, vendors comprised about 3/4 of the floor space.  It’s funny, we always say quilters are the nicest people in the world, but man…they can get a little pushy at these shows.  The aisles get crowded and then you have the folks that stop in the middle of the aisles to talk, check their cell phone or text.  Add in the folks with strollers and things can get downright scary.  Of course there are always some that are sweet and say excuse me, but it seemed like every quilter for herself at times.

Supernova by Heather Jones

This quilt was my favorite of the entire show.  I know that sounds nuts because it’s so simple but the colors reminded me of the Bonnie and Camille fabric lines and the quilting by Angela Walters was just exquisite.  Here’s a close up of the quilting.

Supernova quilting by Angela Walters

This quilt was part of the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild exhibit called A Modern Spin on the Ohio Star Block.  So beautiful!  I believe Pat Sloan just recently had Heather Jones on one of her episodes and she talked a little bit about Supernova.  Here’s the link.  Heather also has a blog called oliveandollie.com if you want to check her out.

Homage to My Grandmother's Mother's Bluebonnet Star by Jane Bergstralh

This show really was heavy on the art quilting and didn’t have as many traditional type quilts.  Although I loved all the art quilts, I really missed having more of the traditional ones to look at.  I thought this one was gorgeous.  It was called a Texas Baltimore.  I’m not familiar with that…guess I should google it.  I don’t see much “baltimore-ish” about it, but I thought it was beautiful.  Here’s the info sheet on it as well. Now you guys know I am drawn to all things animal, so of course, I had to get pics of the few animal art quilts I was actually allowed to take pictures of.

God's Greatest Gift to me was Dad by Cindy Garcia

This was beautiful.  Cindy Garcia did a fantastic job with the thread painting and the quilting to capture the tiniest details from the wrinkles in the face and the jeans to the wood on the stall doors.  She created this quilt to honor her Dad who had passed away.  It reminded me so much of my dad with my horse Blossom that it literally brought tears to my eyes.

Lucy by Judy Greenwood

Another stunning portrait quilt.  Judy Greenwood created Lucy via ink painting and machine quilting.  Lucy was a new puppy that the chef on one of her quilting retreats :)   Very life-like and fascinating!

Salad with Pears by Gail Segreto

There was an exhibit called “Festival Gallery of Quilt Art:  Good For You”.  The quilts in this group were based on a theme of “what’s good for you?”.  This particular quilt drew me in due to the color.  The colors were just really vibrant and I’m afraid this picture doesn’t really do the quilt justice.

Black White & READ Village by Karen Eckmeier

This was a fascinating art quilt that was part of the Tactile Architecture exhibit.  Karen created computer generated text-based on her morning collage journals to create the fabric for her village.  It was really fascinating and I spent a long time just staring and reading the words that made up the village.  The machine quilting and couching to make the individual elements of the village stand out were really quite incredible.  Here are a few more close-ups of this art quilt.

That’s it for the quilting pics.  There were a lot of areas that were labeled “no photography” at this show.  I am constantly amazed at the number of people who are still snapping away in these areas…sigh.

I think this post has gotten a bit long, so I’m going to do a separate post showing you my “loot” for those that only wanted to see the quilts and not what I did to stimulate the economy yesterday, lol.  Hope you enjoyed the little tour!

Q2 2012 Finish A Long

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I’m so excited to be joining in the 2nd quarter finish-a-long with Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap :)   I really REALLY wanted to participate in the 1st quarter but knew there was no chance under the sun that I could add one more deadline to my list of demands.  Between speaking and conferences and the clinic, OMG, it was insane!  But life has slowed down a bit and I’ve been able to spend some more time with my machine AND just added a newcomer to the sewing studio as well (read all about my crazy extravagance here).

So, without further delay, here are my goals for Q2 of the FAL.  If this is the first you’ve heard of it, then you DEFINITELY need to read about it here.

First, I’d like to finish my little table topper that I started last summer.  Current state:  it’s all sandwiched and the scrappy binding is already made up.  I just need to quilt it and bind it, wash it and then we should be good to go!

Next up, my Swoon quilt!  I really want to get going on this.  In the time Pam at Hip to be a Square has made 2 Swoon QUILTS, I have made 2 Swoon BLOCKS, lol.  Here are the 2 that I have completed so far – 2 down, 7 to go!

Block 2 of Swoon

Finishing Swoon is probably going to be my biggest job this quarter, so I’m going to try and keep the others a little more simple.  I would like to finish this wool project (yep, I realize Easter just passed me by…but think how far ahead I’ll be for next year!).

And last but certainly not least, my Charming LoneStar quilt.  She’s just been sitting patiently waiting for me to send her off to a longarmer to be quilted but something keeps holding me back.  Now that I have Scarlett and her big jumbo hoop, MAYBE I’ll get brave and do the quilting myself!  I’ve just been so worried about screwing it up and I just love that quilt so much…but hey, what the heck right.  Take a breath and jump right in :)

I think that’s all I better bite off for now :)   Thanks for visiting!

A Little Embroidery

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I finally finished creating the spools banner for Scarlett yesterday :)   The pattern was from Big Dreams Embroidery and was very easy to follow.   It’s called Spool of Thread Banner.  I ended up creating the 7 inch spools.  Each spool took a little over an hour to stitch out between putting fabric in for the applique, trimming, etc.  This is a close-up of the first few letters when I started last weekend.  For fabric, I had a little fat eighth bundle of Etchings by 3 Sisters for Moda.  I’ve been in love with this line for awhile and still want to make a quilt out of it, but the reds, greys, and creams seemed just perfect for Scarlett’s banner.

So, here’s the completed banner.  I’m sorry the light is kind of punky.  I was using my iphone camera and was too lazy to get out the fancy, schmancy Nikon :)

And there’s Scarlett sitting under her new banner.  Please excuse the mess!  Eek :)   I’m not sure how much sewing I’ll get done this weekend as I really need to do some work outside in the barn cleaning stalls and brushing the girls out.  The horses are shedding their winter coats like crazy!  I also need to start preparing the garden and cleaning out all the winter stuff to get ready to plant in the next few weeks.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

A Mug Rug Kind of Day

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Did you have a good week?  It was a crazy one around here.  Spring is definitely here EARLY in Indiana and the pollen counts are currently what they usually are in June.  My poor allergy patients are having a heck of a time, but I do love having the windows open :)   The hubs was sick for several days and was kind enough to pass it on to me (thank you husband…) but after 3 days of total ick, I’m back to normal and ready to head into another crazy week!

So, what’s new?  Well, I’m still learning my machine, so I thought I would try my hand at a couple of mug rugs.  I’ve always thought they were so cute and my dad has a birthday coming up, so what better way to learn my new machine right?  And of course, I had to make one for my mom too right?  I can just hear the morning conversation….”sure wish I had a little “quilty thing” to set my coffee on like OUR daughter made for YOU!”  Gotta love it…

But first things first.  Scarlett has had a big week!  She went with me for a 5 hour class on Friday to learn all her ins and outs.  Next week we go back to learn embroidery.  I can’t wait!  Katie turned me on to this super adorable little embroidered banner/bunting (what’s a bunting anyway???) and I totally can’t wait to make it and hang it above the window where Scarlett sits.  But…you will have to wait on pics of that until after next Friday, sorry!

Scarlett did get a little “bling” though.  I added a little magnifying glass attachment for my eyes (90 year old eyes in a 43 year old’s body…grr!).  The ladies at the store have been talking about this for ages and I’ve been fighting it (“I have my readers, I’m fine”.  Let me just say, WOW!  what a difference for my stitch in the ditch stuff … I kid you now!  Here, take a look:

Without Magnification

With Magnification

 

 

 

 

 

Also, things are progressing nicely between Emmie and Scarlett.  There’s been no more hissing or smacking, but Emmie remains leery.  Which isn’t a bad thing as her nose was often a little closer than I’d like to the needle.  I’m a vet, but I do hate it when my own animals are hurting (especially if I’m the cause!).

What were we talking about?  Oh yes, mug rugs!  So, I made one for my dad using the Reunion fabric by Sweetwater.  I found a tutorial written by Angie at Stitching by Starlight that looked simple enough for me (note – you can find tutorials for everything on Pinterest and Google Image, lol).  I thought it was a great tutorial, easy to follow and a quick project!  There were 2 tries previous to this one (not happy endings) …I really wanted to do some machine binding (read quick and easy) but I just was really unhappy with the results of all the ones I tried.  I read the tutorial by Julie at JayBird Quilts and Pat Sloan’s tutorial…they make it look lovely and simple, but perhaps I’m lacking a binding gene?  I made it reversible because bless his heart, he’ll have no idea what a mug rug is anyway, so he should be able to just use both sides.  I’m even sending it with a little “what is a mug rug” printout from last year when there was the Mug Rug Madness blog affair going on.

Here’s the front:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the back: 

 

 

 

 

 

Poor Mom, on the other hand, got the mug rug that I did with the machine binding (Pat Sloan’s method … sorry to shame you Pat :( ).So, those are all boxed up and ready to head to Florida tomorrow.  Mom knows I have a blog but never remembers to check it, lol, so I’m safe posting pictures.  Well, I have a crazy week ahead and still some work to do yet tonight, so I’ll sign off.  Also, I keep fighting this little stinker sitting in front of the screen! Lucy says hello…

I did it…meet Scarlett :)

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Meet Scarlett!

 

So, I bit the bullet!  After lots of angst, research, and beating myself up for not “needing” a new machine, I decided to get the Bernina 830 LE.  Ever since I looked at her last Saturday and allowed myself to even think about getting her, it’s become an obsession.  I scoured the message boards of all my favorite groups, searched all the blogs, contacted the folks who I knew owned one for feedback and looked for all the good, bad, and the ugly.  It seemed that the first machines that came out in 2008 had some tension issues, but all the folks I spoke with had either had their issues resolved by the company or had their machines replaced.  Since 2010, it didn’t appear anyone was having issues.

Settled in her cabinet

It seemed that everyone that owned one, loved it and didn’t regret the purchase.  Now, I can do guilt like nobody’s business (thank my parents for sending me to a Catholic school growing up), so when I read all the messages about folks that thought it was insane to spend that kind of money on a sewing machine, I of course, started to feel guilty for even considering it.  Then I thought long and hard about it on Thursday.  Thursdays are normally my late day/night at the clinic.  I go in at 1:00 and see clients until 9 p.m.   This allows some after work options for those who can’t come in with their itchy pets during normal  hours.  I started off my day by going to an equine hospital and doing a skin test on a horse at 10 a.m. and found myself ending my day and driving home at 10:30 p.m.  I thought, you know, this is crazy…you work your tail off…if you can afford to buy this (48 month interest free financing which is how I bought my 440 QE!) and it makes you happy, then the heck with what everyone else thinks!  You’re almost 44 years old, why the HECK do you give a rat’s “bleep” what anyone thinks?  You don’t have children, you have a husband with an equally expensive hobby…does this make you happy?  YES!  Then consider it therapy!  So, Friday morning, I walked into my dealer and placed my order.  After hyperventilating for a bit (thank you Katie @ Katie’s Quilting Corner for calming me down and telling me it was ok, lol) I went home and started preparing for her arrival.  I actually got a call Friday night telling me she MIGHT be ready by the time sewing circle and software sampler were over on Saturday afternoon!

Emmie stalking Scarlett :)

So, yesterday I brought her home!  Emmie doesn’t know what to think…she’s bigger than Bernie (the 440 QE) and “purrs” differently.  She spent most of the evening stalking her.  She would hop up on the table, crouch down, and slink around her on all sides.  She even hissed at her once, lol.  I was trying to think of names for her (because the “big hussy” seemed oh, so inappropriate for such a pretty girl) and luckily, Katie came to my rescue again with “Scarlett”.  Given her red face plate, I think that name is PERFECT!  Thank you Katie….now you just need to come schedule a visit to Indiana to play :)   The IQF is in Cincinnati in April…wanna come?  :)

Block 2 of Swoon

So, Emmie and I stayed up until midnight playing with Scarlett and finished Block 2 of Swoon.  Thanks to Pam @ Hip to be a Square for her pressing tips!  (go here).  Block 2 turned out much better than block 1 with only one seam ripping event I’m happy to say.  I can tell piecing on a 9 mm feed dog is a lot different from piecing on my 5 mm Bernie.  I bought the single stitch throat plate, but I need a lot of practice!  Looks rainy here today so it would be the perfect day for some sewing IF I didn’t have to finish taxes, do laundry, go to the grocery store, get horse feed, clean stalls….sigh.  Oh well, I played all day yesterday, so today I shall do my chores :)   I have my first class with Scarlett from 10-3 next Friday…I can’t wait.  Oh, and with my purchase came an all expenses paid trip for a 2 day seminar on the 830 LE with the Bernina Educators in Chicago in August or December!  I’m a lucky girl :)

Dilemma

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So, I’m in a funk!  I finished my first Swoon block this morning (yeah!) and I really think I probably used my seam ripper more than I have in the last several projects.  Apparently, my instruction reading skills and diagram following skills leave something to be desired.  Never the less, block one is finished!

After finishing block one, I decided I really needed to take Bernie (the Bernina) in for her annual check up (mainly because she missed her check up last year!…bad Lori).  So I got her all packed up, got the embroidery unit packed up for servicing too (might as well right?) and off I went.  When i got there, there were lots of signs about the special financing event going on in March until the 19th.   Basically, if you charge over $6000, there’s free financing for 48 months.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I truly love my machine.  I have no complaints, no problems.  The only things I would even remotely change would be larger throat space for quilting, an automatic thread cutter, and not having to be connected to my computer for the machine embroidery process.

While I was waiting, I just so happened to gander over at the 830 LE.  The owner must have seen the drool slipping from my mouth and came over and took me for a fully guided tour of this Cadillac of Berninas.  Oh my, this girl is lovely…just lovely.  So, of course she just happened to mention that I could do a trade on my 440 QE to lower the price.  She’s going to call me Monday with a quote on trading mine in.  And of course, there’s a great deal with $500 off and when you order the LE model, you get a free 2 day course in Chicago with the Bernina Educators.  I was good, I walked away and didn’t try and make any changes on the spot.

The dilemma – I don’t NEED a new machine.  Mine is working just fine.  All the bells and whistles are pretty incredible though.  Sigh…obviously cooler heads will likely prevail after a good nights sleep.  Oh yeah, and Eddie is walking around limping again so he may make the decision very easy for me if he needs ACL surgery :)

Anyone have a Bernina 830 they’d like to share their thoughts with me on?